Tribute by James Wardrobe, Highfield Fellow Master TERENCE TINSLEY I first met Terence in September 1972 when I joined the staff of Highfield School as a young Classics teacher. Terence had already been teaching at the school for five years and was part of a formidable triad that constituted the Mathematics Department and which also comprised Peter Mills, Headmaster, and the incomparable Shirley Pelmore. Terence also taught Geography and later Scripture, but his extra-curricular contribution to the life of the school was already by then immense and continued to be so until his retirement. He coached teams in all the major team Sports and at 50 years of age was fitter and faster around the soccer, rugby and and hockey pitches than many of his younger colleagues. He ran a popular Astronomy activity, camped out with the school scout troop, the Venturers, and ran the Air Rifle Shooting Club... about which more later. Terence also, quietly and often unnoticed, prepared the chapel for all the school services and was a regular attender at morning chapel assembly, where his booming bass could always be heard, usually in tune, during the daily hymn. In fact, he regularly took part in numerous Highfield musical events and was a stalwart of the local choral societies, including Bramshott choir and Fernhurst Choral Society, continuing to participate actively into his nineties. Terence was an ideal colleague, loyal and very-good-humoured, always willing to take on new tasks with enthusiasm and equanimity, and very popular with the children, to whom he invariably showed great kindness and patience. Above all, he was unflappable and self-reliant, not phased at all, for example, at losing a boy on the Underground whilst taking a school trip to London. The child had got off the tube too early, so Terence and the rest simply alighted at the next stop, confident that the miscreant would appear on the next train, which he did. The school party got back on the tube and continued their journey, no harm done. No need to fill in Health & Safety forms in those days, as the following story, which I believe says everything about Terence's wonderful attitude to life's ups and downs, also shows. One day, after school, whilst Terence was preparing the targets for the Shooting Club, a seven-year-old called Charles, pulled the trigger on his air rifle by accident and shot Terence in the shin. As the blood flowed down Terence's trouser leg, the whole group of children became hysterical, with much howling and weeping. Terence is reported to have looked down at his leg and said out loud, though more to himself than anyone else, since there were no other adults in the vicinity, "This, I could do without..." Charles was a day boy and on the way home in the car that evening, his mother noticed that he was rather more subdued than normal. She asked him: "Charles, did anything happen at school today?" Charles replied, "Yes mummy, today I shot a master..." Understandably concerned, Charles' mother rang the Headmaster, Robin Orr, to find out what had happened. Robin hadn't heard anything about this incident and did some investigations. It turned out that Terence, not wanting to make what he regarded as an unnecessary fuss, had simply taken himself off to A & E, without mentioning what he regarded as a minor issue to any of the school authorities. I mentioned that the children thought very highly of Terence. At the end of his last term, in December 1992, an eight-year-old called Robert Foster, who had only arrived in the September and knew Terence for only three months, wrote the following poem, which is a delightful tribute: The Games Master Mr Tinsley, our old games master, Seemed to make me learn sport faster. I learnt to dribble very well, But that's only what it seemed. I seldom got into a team. I tried my hardest But never succeeded So he often gave me extra help I needed. On the last day of term As he left It seemed like some sort of theft. Terence was a humble man and a reliable friend. He would want us to think of him happily and fondly, both today and whenever we contemplate his life in the future. I count it as my very good fortune to have known him for over 40 years. 27.iv.15